Category: Ellen Pompeo

Ellen Pompeo detained by TSA for an hour over a bag of sunflower seeds

Post author By celebrityabout
Post date June 4, 2025

As we’ve discussed, Netflix just released a six-minute preview of the new season of Wednesday. One of my favorite parts of the clip is Wednesday Addams going through security at Newark Airport (who knew how prescient setting a horror show at Newark would end up being, amirite?). After unloading all manner of instruments (weapons) Wednesday has packed to use against the Kansas City Scalper, what is the item TSA agents end up dinging her for? A sunscreen bottle larger than three ounces! As someone who had to surrender my own sunscreen at JFK just a few months ago, the bit spoke to me. This preamble brings us to Ellen Pompeo. The Grey’s Anatomy star just revealed to Travel Leisure that on a recent flight, TSA agents detained her for an hour while they called in the bomb squad… to inspect her bag of sunflower seeds! What, were they worried she bought them from the same dealer who sold Jack his beanstalk beans?

“I had a bag of sunflower seeds, like organic sunflower seeds from Erewhon, so they were probably the most expensive sunflower seeds money can buy,” she told Travel Leisure in an interview published May 29. “They literally held me for an hour, and they brought the bomb squad in.”

And Pompeo couldn’t believe that her seeds—purchased from the upscale Los Angeles grocer known for the Hailey Bieber smoothie—prompted such a serious response.

“And I was like, what is happening? Is this a joke?” she recalled. “They said it was most likely a chemical on the packaging of these super expensive, fancy, organic, clean sunflower seeds. My protein on the plane!”

Even when the actress offered to throw away the seeds, she said officials needed her to remain put while they investigated the unopened bag.

“I almost missed the flight,” the 55-year-old shared. “It was really like no one would ever believe this! I was texting my publicist saying, ‘I might not get on this plane, and you’re never gonna guess why.’”

And while Pompeo’s protein-packed snack certainly set off alarms, it’s not the only time her dedication to her health has sparked controversy.

In fact, she recently recalled that she was once “so skinny” that “everyone thought I had an eating disorder.”

“The tabloids would say horrible things,” she told People in February. “I just remember being so anxious on red carpets, and the comments about my weight and my body.”

“It was a whole situation with how skinny I was, and there was so much negative attention,” she explained. “Girls today can be gorgeous and thin and thank God we’re not allowed to comment on women’s bodies, even though people do. But I just had so much anxiety and lacked self-esteem because people were so critical of my physicality.”

[From E! News]

I know this isn’t the point of the story, but a bag of ~~overpriced~~ organic sunflower seeds was her entire protein for the flight? Dare I say, that is literally eating like a bird! Anyway, I ribbed the TSA agents earlier, but kidding aside, this exact same thing happened to me. Only it wasn’t a bag of sunflower seeds but a big burrito tightly wrapped in tin foil. And I wasn’t detained for an hour while bomb squad came in to assist, but instead had to suffer through the withering gaze of the agents whose facial expressions loudly said, “Damn lady, that is one big ass burrito.” (It was a cross country flight! I need more protein than Ellen!) I can’t believe they didn’t just let her throw the seeds away like she offered. That seems needlessly crazy on the TSA’s part. Personally, I would sooner sit down in place and eat my burrito than trash it, but I guess that’s the difference between me and Ellen. (Or a burrito and sunflower seeds.)

Completely unrelated comment: how have Ellen Pompeo and Renee Zellweger never been cast as sisters in a project? I watched Ellen’s Hulu show Good American Family, and spent the whole first episode thinking, “I KNOW that voice!”

Embed from Getty Images

Photos credit: Sebastien Fremont/Starface Photo/Cover Images, T.Jackson/Backgrid, Roger Wong/INSTARimages, Getty and via Instagram

Tags ellen pompeo, food, travel

Blake Lively Ellen Pompeo Fashion jenna dewan Kelsea Ballerini olivia wilde

Blake Lively glowed in a bellbottom jumpsuit at the NYFW Michael Kors show

Post author By celebrityabout
Post date September 12, 2023

Even with the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes still ongoing, it feels like so much is happening – the Venice Film Festival closed this past weekend, the Toronto Film Festival started several days ago, and New York Fashion Week is super-star-studded. The Michael Kors show is always a popular ticket during NYFW, and the star of the Kors show is inevitably Blake Lively. Blake is all about Kors and she almost always comes out for his runway shows.

He usually gives her something from his new collection too, which explains why Blake wore this Michael Kors bellbottom jumpsuit. Thoughts? I don’t hate it, although I wonder if the jumpsuit would be better with a simple flared leg rather than full bellbottom. The golden shade complements Blake’s coloring and I love her curly hair and the overall ‘70s vibe. While I think Blake generally has a Mall Girl aesthetic, she actually pulls off some generational vintage-style fashion.

Here’s Jenna Dewan at the Kors show… I only love the coat here. I would wear the hell out of that coat.

Kelsea Ballerini – loathe the sunglasses, dislike the “high fashion fanny pack” energy.

Olivia Wilde – god help me, but I love this outfit. Great coat, great boots, amazing knits. I don’t even mind the fringed purse.

Ellen Pompeo kind of got the worst Kors outfit.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

Tags blake lively, ellen pompeo, fashion, jenna dewan, Kelsea Ballerini, olivia-wilde

Ellen Pompeo Grey's Anatomy Katherine Heigl

Ellen Pompeo to Katherine Heigl: ‘nobody likes a super confident woman’

Post author By celebrityabout
Post date June 9, 2023

There’s a Variety “Actors on Actors” conversation between Ellen Pompeo and Katherine Heigl that I was very surprised to see. It was titled as “The ‘Grey’s’ Reunion We’ve Been Waiting For,” which, uh, sure. I guess so since Sandra Oh doesn’t seem interested in revisiting the show. Apparently Katherine and Ellen are great friends with the former even throwing the latter a baby shower back in the day, which was also news to me considering I didn’t think Ellen was friends with anyone in the cast aside from Jesse Williams and I don’t think she said a public word in support of Katherine until recently. But anyway, their conversation did have some interesting insights for longtime Grey’s fans such as myself.

On Ellen leaving Grey’s Anatomy

HEIGL: With Meredith, are you letting her go, or is she coming with you?

POMPEO: Oh no, I’ve been on the show so long, I’m happy to let that go. We’re past that point. I think it’s OK for Meredith to stop making bad decisions. One of my frustrations is the Nick and Meredith of it all. Scott Speedman plays Meredith’s love interest, Nick Marsh, and I love Speedman. Somehow, Meredith can’t figure out how to make a relationship work, still, after all this time. I felt so happy to be able to step away, and I felt like I accomplished something incredible.

On Grey’s being a surprise hit

POMPEO: We came into work the next day, and everybody was freaking out. The ratings were huge. I don’t even know if people can count that high anymore. Then we went on hiatus, and the show was airing. I’m so grateful there was no social media then. We would’ve lost our minds, even more than we already lost our minds.

HEIGL: It didn’t take a lot. I just remember that I was nervous that they were not going to air it. There was a moment when it was unclear. They didn’t like it.

POMPEO: We’ll be very nice and not name the executive who almost took a nap on Shonda Rhimes. I’m not saying it, but he almost slept on Shonda Rhimes — almost didn’t air that pilot! You can do your research and find out who it was. Imagine being that guy.

On intimacy coordinators and supporting younger talent on set

POMPEO: This is not specific to the character of Izzie leaving, but stress on sets … I’ve only been on one set my whole entire career, so I guess people could critique this comment, but I hear a lot of stories; I don’t hear about a lot of support. That’s one of the things I try to do now as a producer, specifically on “Grey’s,” is try to offer support — try to have a place for people to talk through things. There was no one to tell me, “This is OK. This is not OK.” There’s a very exploitive nature to what we do. Intimacy coordinators create a whole other slew of problems, but the intention behind it is good.

HEIGL: I had this experience on “Firefly Lane,” because I was like, “I’m an old Hollywood broad, bitch. You don’t have to tell me how to make out on camera.” And I ended up loving this woman so deeply, and being so grateful for her, because she protected us in a way that I didn’t realize how unprotected we were. And I was so grateful to her as well, because we did have young girls on the set. There was a rape scene. And for her to be there protecting them, I felt this weight off of me in a way that I didn’t feel like I had to find a way to fight those battles for these girls. I’m always the bad guy. People like me to be the bad guy.

On women being the victim or villain

POMPEO: You know what I love? There’s two roles women fit into, victim or villain. And the women who are victims are only victims because they don’t have the guts to be the villain.

HEIGL: I was so naive. I got on my soapbox and I had some things to say, and I felt really passionate about this stuff. I felt really strongly. I felt so strongly that I also got a megaphone out on my soapbox. There was no part of me that imagined a bad reaction. I felt really justified in how I felt about it and where I was coming from. I’ve spent most of my life — I think most women do — being in that people-pleasing mode. It’s really disconcerting when you feel like you have really displeased everybody. It was not my intention to do so, but I had some things to say, and I didn’t think I was going to get such a strong reaction.

POMPEO: Listen, nobody likes a super confident woman. And that’s why they’re taking away reproductive rights, and voting rights all over this country, is because they don’t want women to find their power. They don’t want women to have a voice. They don’t want women to have control because they know that we can do it better than they can.

[From Variety]

In their conversation, they also mention that Grey’s showed an ectopic pregnancy for Sandra Oh’s character back in the mid-aughts, noting that Republicans should learn more about that stuff and give kudos to Shonda Rhimes for including it. But they also leave out that years later the same character later has an abortion just because she wants to and it’s her right, when not a lot of shows were doing that at the time. And the current iteration of Grey’s is focusing a lot on abortion activism and work in the wake of the fall of Roe.. As much as I complain about the show’s recent switch to hitting viewers over the head with very obvious and too realistic narratives (e.g. the covid storylines), it doesn’t change the fact that a lot of viewers need to see this stuff. Anyway, they are right about what they say about women and Katherine was treated badly at the time because she “stepped out of line” and was punished for her. I just find it curious that Ellen is so supportive now, but I guess she felt she had to toe the line back then and feels more empowered to speak up now that the show is entering its 20th season and she’s not even on it anymore? The whole thing is worth a read if you’re a Grey’s fan.

Tags ellen pompeo, grey's anatomy, katherine heigl

Ellen Pompeo Grey's Anatomy Television

Ellen Pompeo’s exit storyline on Grey’s Anatomy was revealed and fans aren’t happy

Post author By celebrityabout
Post date November 14, 2022

Spoilers for previously aired episodes of Grey’s Anatomy

Grey’s Anatomy is attempting a reboot in its 19th season with a new crop of interns. Most of the original, second, and third, and fourth wave main cast members have left at this point, and Ellen Pompeo’s titular character is the next to go. They announced months ago Ellen would be appearing in a limited capacity this season. They’ve been teasing her exit for the past two seasons, but now it’s real. Meredith Grey will leave Seattle Grace Mercy Death Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital when the show returns from the winter hiatus. Fans are not happy about the future of Grey’s Anatomy without the Grey.

Grey’s Anatomy fans, it’s time to say goodbye. After 19 seasons of leading the medical drama, Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) has clocked in her final day as an attending in Seattle.

Throughout the latest ABC installment, viewers have seen the titular character question her choices in the medical field. In all came to a head when her house burned down leading Meredith to take the plunge and email her resignation. This gave way for her move to Boston for a job in Alzheimer’s research. While the actual timeframe has been teased the entire season, a promo for the winter premiere indicated when Meredith — and subsequently, Ellen — will take off her scrubs.

As the emotional 30-second spot showed Meredith on her final day at Grey Sloan Memorial, everyone attending at the hospital will gather together to give her a proper sendoff. “On February 23, one chapter ends and a new one begins. 💙,” the show’s official Instagram captioned the clip on November 10.

Understandably, folks were distressed over her impending exit and many didn’t hesitate to share their feelings on social media.

“No Meredith means no Grey’s, I’m done,” one person passionately wrote on Instagram. “You can’t have Grey’s Anatomy without Meredith Grey,” another follower remarked. “It’s not Grey’s Anatomy with Meredith Grey. She made this show what it is,” a different TV-goer added.

While Meredith may be leaving Seattle soon, this doesn’t mean Ellen herself is stepping away from Grey’s Anatomy. Back in August, Deadline reported that she’ll still be an executive producer and will narrate future episodes. This decreased role will also give the actress the chance to executive produce and star in a limited series for Hulu.

As for how Ellen feels the show will fare after she leaves, she has no worries. “[Grey’s Anatomy] will be just fine without me,” she told Deadline in September. “I’m going to always be a part of that show. I’m an executive producer on that show. I spent two decades of my career on that show — it’s my heart and soul. I’ll never truly be gone as long as that show is on the air.”

[From Good Housekeeping]

I mean, potentially burning down Meredith’s house is also a huge blow. Grey’s really won’t let anything end nicely, huh? Derek, Alex, and now Meredith’s house are just a few of the things they’ve burned to the ground over the years. And with Lexie long dead too, I guess the only Grey in Grey’s Anatomy will be Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, which is pretty indestructible (not to give them any ideas). As a fan, this isn’t the last straw for me because I was already checked out. It’s not just Meredith, but her relationships with the other characters that made the show and most of those characters are long gone. Ellen will continue to executive produce the show, narrate the episodes, and may appear in the season finale. But her character is leaving town for personal and professional reasons — not for her new boyfriend played by Scott Speedman, but for a school that better suits her daughter’s needs and to work on a cure for Alzheimer’s. This all makes sense, I just half wish they hadn’t taken the long way getting there.

Tags ellen pompeo, grey's anatomy, television

Ellen Pompeo Grey's Anatomy

Ellen Pompeo on season 19 of Greys: ‘I don’t deserve to be in every single episode’

Post author By celebrityabout
Post date September 12, 2022

Last month, we learned that Ellen Pompeo would be taking a big step back from Grey’s Anatomy for the show’s 19th season. She’ll be appearing in only eight episodes in a 20-something episode season, though she’ll remain as executive producer. Ellen will be working on a new role in a Hulu series.

On Friday, Ellen and her former TV husband Patrick Dempsey were both honored as Disney Legends. I didn’t know this was a thing, but there was a ceremony with handprints and signatures and all. Ellen spoke to Yahoo! Entertainment about her upcoming quasi-departure and makes it very clear that she asked to step away from Grey’s.

As announced last month, longtime lead Ellen Pompeo, who plays the show’s namesake character, Dr. Meredith Grey, will have a reduced role in ABC’s hugely popular medical drama as the actress stars in a new still-untitled series on Hulu about the real-life American parents who adopted a Ukrainian woman posing as an orphan child.

In an interview Friday with Yahoo Entertainment at Disney’s D23 Expo in Anaheim, Pompeo shed more light on her decision to have limited screen time in the new season of Grey’s, saying that taking a smaller role was better than leaving the show altogether.

“The fans love the show, the company loves the show, and I always want to make everybody happy,” said Pompeo, who, along with former Grey’s co-star Patrick Dempsey, was honored as part of the new class of Disney Legends. “I don’t know if that makes me a people pleaser, or I need therapy. I don’t know what it means.

“The show inspires people to go into the medical field. It inspires young people to want to be healers and doctors. It’s an amazing platform, and I really love it. But there’s only so much of it I can do after 19 seasons. It’s a lot. And I’ve given the fans and the show so much of my heart and passion and energy, and if I don’t have that same level 19 seasons later, I don’t deserve to be in every single episode. The fans deserve people who are super-excited and happy to be there. And these news kids that we have coming in are very happy and excited to be there.

“I did want to step away, and they were gracious enough to hear me, and then they were also more gracious than that to offer me another role.” (Hulu is majority-owned by ABC parent Disney.)

[From Yahoo! Entertainment]

It was pretty clear that Ellen wanted to step away, but I think this is the first time she’s specifically said it. I’ve always wondered why they’ve keep the show going for so long when it’s clearly past its prime. I figured Ellen did it due to her hard-won paycheck, the network did it because it still had an audience, and Shondaland did it just because they could. But it has been clear for a while now that Ellen doesn’t have the same level of passion and energy about her role and the show. It’s nice of her to frame it as not deserving to be in every episode instead of just saying she doesn’t want to be in it as much. We all know it’s the latter, but this framing is more respectful of the others involved in the show. It’s interesting that she says she wanted to step away and then they offered her the role on the Hulu show. Sounds like they were nervous she would want to quit completely, so the new role was a way to keep her happy but half in with Grey’s until they can see whether the show will survive without her. It seems like they’re transitioning toward this new class of interns, but I think it’s time to call it.

A few people have asked: Here’s the video of Ellen Pompeo crashing my interview with Patrick Dempsey, Dempsey taking my mic and stealing my job.

Congrats to @Yahoo/@YahooEnt‘s new host @PatrickDempsey. I’ll now be chasing my dream of rebooting Can’t Buy Me Love. #D23Expo pic.twitter.com/vG9LTs3XJy

— Kevin Polowy (@djkevlar) September 10, 2022

Photos credit: Cover Images and via Instagram

Tags ellen pompeo, grey's anatomy

Ellen Pompeo Grey's Anatomy Kate Walsh Katherine Heigl

Ellen Pompeo: Katherine Heigl was telling the truth about the Grey’s set

Post author By celebrityabout
Post date April 22, 2022

Spoilers for past seasons of Grey’s Anatomy

Ellen Pompeo debuted a podcast last year, in which she interviews notable guests about various topics. She told that absurd story about Denzel in the Debbie Allen episode. But aside from that, her podcast has some pretty interesting guests. In addition to her current and former Grey’s Anatomy costars, she’s also interviewed interesting people like Yara Shahidi, Michele Harper, Lindsay Peoples Wagner, etc. Basically, the podcast is more than that stupid story.

In the latest episode, Ellen’s guest is former/returning Grey’s Anatomy costar Kate Walsh. Kate recently revived her Addison Montgomery character on Grey’s for the first time in 10 seasons and will be returning for a few more episodes this spring. Ellen and Kate have a nice, easy rapport. It’s friendly and familiar, but not overly close, and mirrors their characters in that way. Of course, the two discussed Grey’s and their time together on the show and unexpectedly, Katherine Heigl came up as they were discussing work/life balance. Both women agreed with Katherine’s past comments about the long hours on TV sets.

Ellen Pompeo agrees with Katherine Heigl.

The actress, 52, backed her former Grey’s Anatomy costar’s comments about the long and grueling hours for filming the long-running ABC medical drama during the latest episode of her Tell Me podcast.

Joined by another Grey’s Anatomy alum, Kate Walsh — who is set to return to the series for another guest arc in the show’s current season — Pompeo and Walsh, 54, discussed comments that Heigl, 43, made over a decade ago about working on the series.

“I remember Heigl said something on a talk show about the insane hours we were working and she was 100 percent right,” Pompeo said Wednesday. “And had she said that today, she’d be a complete hero. But she’s ahead of her time, made a statement about our crazy hours and of course, [it was like] let’s slam a woman and call her ungrateful.”

Added Pompeo: “When the truth is, she’s 100 percent honest and it’s absolutely correct what she said. She was f—— ballsy for saying it — she was telling the truth. She wasn’t lying!”

Heigl’s comments about the long hours on the Grey’s Anatomy set were made during a 2009 episode of The Late Show with David Letterman. At the time, the medical series was in its sixth season.

“I’m gonna keep saying this ’cause I hope it embarrasses them,” the 27 Dresses star shared during her appearance, explaining how a typical workday for stars was 17 hours, which she described as being “cruel and mean.”

On Tell Me, Walsh said she supported Pompeo’s backing of Heigl. “There’s nothing natural about [the filming process],” she said. “There’s nothing human about it.”

“It’s made for a machine, it’s as if we’re a camera or a mic that just goes and goes and goes,” Walsh added. “And it’s not conducive to any kind of healthy habits.”

Grey’s Anatomy — which airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on ABC — returns to television May 5.

[From People via Yahoo! Entertainment]

If Katherine Heigl made those comments in 2009, it was right around the time she kept getting in trouble for comments that were perceived as rude and ungrateful. I wasn’t watching the show as it aired then, but even I remember the tabloid narrative. Supposedly Katherine had let her movie success go to her head and was rude on the Grey’s set and publicly complained about the quality of her storyline in season 4 — a season that was cut short by the writers’ strike of 2008. She even went so far as to withdraw her name from Emmy consideration, saying that the work didn’t merit it, which kind of seems like a slap in the face of the writers. And then her Izzy character got the ghost sex cancer wedding storyline in season 5 and was unceremoniously written off in season 6. There were even unconfirmed rumors Izzy was supposed to come back and die in the hospital shooting episode, but Katherine didn’t show up for the guest appearance. All this to say, she was persona non grata around Grey’s and Shondaland for awhile. There was even a point where Shonda used her name as a synonym for asshole, saying “there are no Heigls” about one of her other sets.

Anyway, Ellen and Kate agreeing with Katherine now is a bit weak. I don’t remember those comments Katherine made about the long hours because she was saying so much other stuff around then, so the most reasonable and therefore least headline-worthy comments got lost in the shuffle. What Katherine said was perfectly reasonable, except the part about “I hope it embarrasses them.” I think most people would balk at that. But I don’t remember anyone from the show, and definitely not Ellen, ever agreeing with her back then. Maybe because they were fed up with her from on-set interactions, or a little bitter over those popular movies, or trying to stay on Shonda/production’s good side, I don’t know. It’s easy for them to agree with Katherine now, on this very narrow issue, when work/life balance and burnout is so prevalent in the public consciousness. We’ve heard again and again that the set was toxic. It would have been a wild podcast if they spilled more dirt on what things were actually like off-camera at that time, but alas, we will have to continue to wait for that tea.

photos credit: Avalon.red and InStar

Tags ellen pompeo, grey's anatomy, kate walsh, katherine heigl

Ellen Pompeo Isaiah Washington

Isaiah Washington: Ellen Pompeo ‘took $5 million’ payout stay quiet

Post author By celebrityabout
Post date October 28, 2021

I probably should have done more coverage of the insidery book about Grey’s Anatomy, How to Save a Life. The book featured an “oral history” with many of the actors about the biggest plot twists of the show and all of the drama behind-the-scenes. While I respect Shonda Rhimes for being a badass boss, Rhimes totally lied for years when she talked about her “no a–hole policy.” All of the actors on Grey’s sound like huge a–holes, and the casting melodramas kind of prove that the show was always a toxic work environment. And yes, Ellen Pompeo and Patrick Dempsey were a huge part of that too. I think we realize now that Ellen is massively problematic!

Anyway, one of the original scandals on Grey’s involved Isaiah Washington and whether or not he used a homophobic slur and whether or not it was about TR Knight. Isaiah was the one who lost his job at Grey’s, but the How To Save a Life book reveals that there was a lot more happening behind the scenes than just a beef between Isaiah and TR. Apparently, Isaiah and Patrick Dempsey got into a fistfight at some point, and Isaiah says now that Patrick was always the biggest toxic element on the show.

Not holding back. While reflecting on his past roles, Isaiah Washington called out his experience on the allegedly “toxic” Grey’s Anatomy set as an example of mistreatment.

“Every single day I was a problem that was being reminded, ‘You’re No. 4 on the call sheet. You’re not the star of this show,”‘ Washington, 58, told Tavis Smiley from KBLA Talk 1580 radio on October 21. From Washington’s perspective, his time on the medical drama was just a prelude to him being “used as a scapegoat” to cover up other problems on set. Washington used his 2007 firing, after he allegedly used a homophobic slur, as an example of the supposed “agenda.”

“It was easy. I didn’t know that it would stick to me so hard. But I found out why,” he claimed. “It was an agenda to cover up for the toxic and bad behavior of many of my former castmates on that show. And the top of that would be Patrick Dempsey.”

Washington’s allegations against costars including Dempsey, 55, come after a recently released book, How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey’s Anatomy, brought back the conversation about the fight that led to his exit. In Lynette Rice‘s tell-all, writer Mark Wilding opened up about the explosive fight between Washington and Dempsey.

“It was my episode. I think one of them had been late to set one day and the other one then decided to pay him back by being late himself. Then it sort of exploded,” Wilding detailed. “They got into an arguing match, and then before you know it they were physically fighting. I was standing there in video village. I’m, like, six feet four inches. I’m bigger than both of them. But I didn’t really jump in right away because I’m like, I don’t know if I want to get involved.”

At the time, it was reported that Washington used a slur in reference to his costar T.R. Knight, which he denied. He previously provided his perspective in the book, saying, “We learned that we [had] to watch what we say. We [had] to make sure we [were] more accountable.”

Washington continued: “I did everything that the producers and the network asked me to do. I came back under great stress, and thought I was doing the job I was hired to do. I thought that was going to speak for my future at Grey’s, but apparently that wasn’t the same vision that the network and studio had for me.”

During his interview, Washington alleged that Pompeo was “unnerved” by the success of her other costars. “She couldn’t believe that everybody was more interested in me and Sandra [Oh] and everybody else than her. So I am not shocked that she said what she said [about Denzel Washington],” the Law & Order alum said. “She really thinks that she’s cool with Black people like that, but she’s not.”

Washington also claimed that the Life of the Party star “took $5 million dollars under the table” during the height of the Me Too era “to not tell the world how toxic and nasty Patrick Dempsey really was.”

[From Us Weekly]

Eh. I think all things are likely true – Isaiah was fired for cause, because he was disruptive on the set, getting in a fistfight with the lead actor (Dempsey) and using a homophobic slur. Now, I absolutely believe that Dempsey and Pompeo were just as toxic as everyone else, but they were the “leads” and so no one could do sh-t about it other than try to manage them. Did Pompeo get paid off to not talk about Dempsey? Eh. Maybe, maybe not. I’m sure she has a lot of stories about Dempsey. But I bet he has some stories about her too.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Tags ellen pompeo, Isaiah Washington